By RICHARD SCHMIEG
LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Throughout most colleges in America freshmen students are not allowed to have cars on campus. Now how is a freshman supposed to get around from place to place? They can take there local or the cities bus; however, that will get expensive after a while.

The alternative is to take the colleges shuttle services, which it’s free for students. Sounds like a good deal right, but there’s a catch. At the University of New Haven the shuttle service and support for the students are the most inconvenient services that I’ve experienced; moreover, even my high school busses ran better than UNH’s shuttle services.

The UNH’s shuttle service is inconvenient because of: the size of some of the busses, the lack of busses for the amount of student, and the shuttle’s constant tardiness.

One of the key problems is there are too many students for the amount of busses. For example, the bus that goes to the Connecticut Post Mall is probably the most popular use for students on the weekends. The shuttle runs every hour to the mall, sounds like a good deal. However, the shuttle the school uses for the mall route is too small and only fits about twenty-two students. Often I find myself in crowd of students waiting for the small shuttle bus only to turn down because there are not enough seats for everyone to fit. Why the school does not use a regular bus for students to mall is beyond me. My parents are paying 44k for me to go to this school and I expected a better service for students. In addition, the bus the school uses to transport students to New Haven is a large regular size bus; however, not many students use this bus while a lot of students use the small bus that transports us to the mall.

Another key issue is the lack of shuttles provided for the students who use them. Going back to the Post Mall example, UNH only provides one small bus to the mall that operates every hour. Doesn’t sound bad on paper; however, there is more demand (the students) than the school supplies (the shuttle). Unlike the state busses that run every fifteen to twenty minuets; so if I miss the bus that I was hoping to catch it’s no big deal. However, if I miss the UNH shuttle I’m going to have to wait a whole hour till the next one comes. UNH could maybe provide an extra bus for the students so instead of running every hour, the shuttle could run every thirty minuets.

Most importantly, the main problem with the UNH shuttle service is excessive tardiness. I know not every taxi, shuttle, or plane that I’m taking is going to arrive on time every time, and it’s to be expected. But, the shuttles have a tendency to arrive late to their proper destination. The shuttle has a schedule that it’s suppose to follow up on. Though I find myself standing at the shuttle stop for an extra ten to fifteen minuets on average. This makes traveling and planning to use the shuttle service very hard, because of there erratic arrival times. What if I have an appointment for a hair cut, or a job interview at the mall? Am I going to have to call a taxi every time I need to go somewhere to ensure that I’ll be on time? I hope UNH has a way of regulating the shuttles to make sure that there following up the times that there suppose to be following.

One might consider this not to be an issue at all because the students at this school have other options such as car pulling, taxi, or the state bus. However, for some of those we have to pay money to use them. I understand that the shuttle is not perfect and will sometimes make a mistake such as tardiness. This wouldn’t bother me so much; however, it’s the excessive tardiness with the shuttle that bothers me about this school. It’s not just me who thinks this way about the shuttle service; many other see my argument as well.

I wanted to raise concern about how the UNH shuttle service, because they have neglected to follow up on what they promise to the students, and hopefully find solutions to the problems that I’ve listed. The school could provide some more shuttles to provide for the growing number of students who use the shuttle. We could have larger busses so that more students could fit on the shuttles. I’m hoping the school takes into consideration about what I wrote, and hopefully the students and administrators can work together to help this issue.